I had a very successful trip with Erik. Though we were constantly met with high winds, we remained flexible and our climbs went well.

On the first day, I met up with Erik and we rode the Aiguille du Midi tram up into the clouds where we were greeted by five inches of fresh snow at the top. The snow didn't slow us down much as we hiked down the Arete de Paigne and around to the Arete de Cosmiques. There we found very mixed conditions, which made walking in our crampons super fun. The viewing platform at the top had fantastic views.

The second day found us on the Petit Aiguille Verte. It was a clear and sunny day, which brought out a fair amount of people. The new snow didn't amount to much as we made our way up the steepening glacier, over the bergshrund, and onto the rocky ridge. We opted to leave our crampons on while climbing the rock to 'up the ante' and help us prepare for our upcoming climbs. This proved to be an excellent idea, and we found super-exposed climbing with views of the Petit Dru to our right and the Aiguille D' Argentier to our left.

The next day we traveled to Mt Blanc. After a bus ride, a tram ride, and a cog-wheel train ride up to 7,874 feet, we began hiking to the Gouter Hut. The Grand Couloir was pretty active and we had to time our 'dash' across it to avoid the serious rock fall there. From the Couloir, we traveled up a pretty steep rock ridge that was snowy and icy in parts, making it interesting. The hut itself was surprisingly comfortable and gradually filled by quite the international crowd of climbers. Erik and I rested and got used to our new altitude of 12,468 feet.

That night we woke at 2am and ate a breakfast of coffee, bread, and jam. The weather was a bit questionable as we prepared to head out, and a quick peek out the door revealed wet, misty clouds and sounds of windy weather higher up. We put off our departure a little and left the hut at 3:20am to brave the now-freezing rain.

By the time we broke through the clouds at 13,780 feet we were covered in a coating of ice that made it difficult to move our arms and open our eyelids. With the stars finally in view, we discovered that our path was heralded by the constellation, Pliedes, which was directly in front of us, inspiring us to step up the pace.

We could here the roaring of the wind higher up far before we felt it, and only until we ascended to the high ridge were we blasted by the gusts. Here we were also greeted by the dawn, just starting to illuminate the surrounding mountains. The ridge wound back and forth for awhile and then narrowed to two feet wide (that is, the width of our two feet) with massive exposure on both sides. It was a real challenge to keep from being blown off. We had to crouch and dig in with our ice axes a few times before we could make a break for it.

Finally we made it, three hours and fifty minutes from the hut. The temperature was 14 degrees F on the summit with winds of at least 25 mph. There was nothing below but a sea of clouds and the descent ridge, waiting for us.

It was a very long way down past the Gouter Hut, through Bellevue and the train, on to Las Houches, and into Chamonix. We were tired when we arrived in town, but the ribs and salmon we found there made the long descent very worth it.

We slept in a little on the morning of our fifth day, but couldn't stay in bed too long as we had to catch a 10:40am train to Zermatt. We arrived in town and to our fantastic hotel, the Alpenblick, around 4 pm where we rested for the next day's attempt of the Matterhorn.

Later that evening we heard that the Matterhorn had recently seen a lot of snow, and the hut crew was still reporting a foot and a half of it right above their position on the mountain. It is not very safe to attempt the peak this type of conditions, so we took the news in stride and shifted gears.

The next morning found us ascending on the super-long tram of the Klien Matterhorn. Our objective was the half-traverse of The Briethorn. We put our crampons on right outside the top tram and descended a little to cross the lower glacier. Here we had excellent views of the twin peaks, Castor and Pollox, and of the horizon over Italy.

As Erik and I neared our ridge, we became aware of the raging winds that were raking all the surrounding summits. Our plan had been to climb a very exposed and steep ridge to gain the central 13,124-foot summit, but once again we were flexible and changed our plans. Right in front of us happened to be a wonderful 45 to 50-degree, 800-foot snow spur coming directly from the summit. Even more alluring, this route was completely on the lee side of the mountain! We decided to give it a go, and this south-southwest spur brought us easily to the central summit, protected from the raging wind until we were standing on top. We then traversed an excellent snow ridge for about 30 minutes and found ourselves on the true and main summit of the Briethorn, at 13,662 feet. We had spectacular views all around. The Matterhorn, Monte Rosa, Liskamm, Mt. Blanc, and La Miege were all within plain and excellent sight. We could see clearly into Italy, France, and Swizerland - that is, when the wind didn't straff our eyeballs too much.

On the way back down in the tram we had a sobering moment when we both noticed an Asian woman who seemed to be suffering from something. We kept an eye on her as we traveled down but she seemed to be getting worse and loosing a lot of color. Erik, who is a doctor, took charge. He concluded that she had definite signs of AMS and seemed to be 'going down' fast. We laid her down on the floor of the tram, took her vitals and any history we could get from her companions - which was complicated by the fact that she and they spoke little to no English. In the meantime, the tram operator made calls on the phone out to an emergency medical service.

When we arrived at the next station, still at 10,500 feet, we helped the sick woman onto a gurney and put her on oxygen. A helicopter had been called and was soon to arrive with equipped medics. We continued to help until the medics arrived and started IVs, loaded her onto the helicopter, and were gone.

Once on the cobbled streets of Zermatt forty-five minutes later, we had trouble believing that it had all really happened. We felt somewhat in the twilight zone as we sipped refreshing drinks.

On our last day, Erik and I woke early and boarded one of the highest trains in the world, the Gornergrat. Our stop was at Rottenboten, where we descended and hiked quickly to the Rifflehorn. Here we found excellent, sunny rock overlooking the Glornergletchergl and a backdrop of the entire Monta Rosa massive. It was outstanding! We were feeling very acclimatized and strong so we started on one of the harder moderate climbs, Thermometeregg, a fantastic six pitches. It went so well that we raced around to the base and climbed another six pitches on The Egg before running to catch the train back down.

In Zermatt once again, we showered and returned to the train station where Erik began his journey home (via Geneva), and I began mine back to Chamonix.